Zainab Abdulrasheed Atobatele is enthusiastic about mentoring and teaching young people. She enjoys mentoring and training children and teenagers. Her desire to pursue English Literature at the University of Abuja stemmed from her love of reading and the realm of fiction.
Zainab is a teacher at King Ado Senior High School in Lagos Island, Nigeria, where she teaches English language and literature. At the Lagos State Education District III Merit Award Ceremony in 2018, she earned an award for Best Teacher, 3rd Position (Senior School).
Mrs Zainab, the inaugural winner of the Teach for Change Nigeria (TFCN) Teacher Prize for Literature, was interviewed by The Muslim Voice NG to learn more about her work and thoughts on the teaching profession.
MV: How do you see your role as a teacher?
ZA: I believe in the role of the teacher as a springboard for harnessing the full potentials of learners, with this in mind, I understand the importance of my role in the life of my students, I play a pivotal role in helping them soar on their chosen career paths.
MV: What inspired you to become a teacher?
ZA: The very basis of my love for teaching came from my mom, she served as a teacher for thirty-five years and I particularly enjoyed watching her dedicate so much love and attention to the teaching profession and her students. She is my role model.
MV: You are involved in mentoring teenagers. Do you think it’s important for teachers?
ZA: A teacher by virtue of our calling and dictates of the noble profession is model to the young ones. Mentoring is key to raising champions. It is essential for children to have someone to look up to. In today’s world, children need adults to hand-hold them to greatness. Teachers need to embrace this rare opportunity to guide to next generation to greatness.
MV: Your students have won many awards in various competitions. What type of projects did they do?
ZA: Majority of our projects have been centred around essay writing on topical issues, spelling bees, debates, drama performances, poetry renditions etc.
MV: What kinds of advocacy can educators achieve through sharing their students’ stories?
ZA: The world being a global hub affords educators the grand opportunity to share the remarkable work they do. Sharing our students’ stories is a beautiful way of getting opportunities that could better the chances of some of these children especially from undeserved communities. Through sharing of my students’ stories, some of my champs have been blessed with many educational opportunities, gifts , mentoring sessions from well meaning people across social media.
MV: Is there a student story you’d like to share?
ZA: Wow!
Many of my students have really inspired me to push through the rigours of life, I have seen them navigate through the challenges of the death of a parent, accidents, loss of a home, the pangs of hunger and many more challenges with grit and tenacity, with hope and courage, I must say, they are truly inspiring.
The story of my champ, who struck a chord in me at our first meeting, an exceptionally brilliant and quite expressive girl, one that gradually became a shadow of herself. She suddenly wasn’t that bright champ I had met a few months earlier, after a bit of digging, she opened up about the challenges she was bedeviled with, which was largely gender discrimination from her own father and also his insistence on her choosing medicine and surgery as her choice of career.
I was immediately faced with an enormous responsibility in convincing her father to accept her choice of career path which is to become a lawyer and also to believe in her ability as a girl child to succeed. It was a daunting task,which took months and series of interventions, eventually we convinced him partially, it took a couple more months, as this champ started to excel in both state and national competitions in the arts, in no time her dogged father was on our team beaming with smiles of pride and satisfaction and my champ radiating so much joy in her victory. This story is one success story I am proud to share.
MV: What are your personal goals for your teaching career in the next 5-10 years?
ZA: I am working towards owning an academy in the near future which will be largely focused on harnessing the potentials of children in low income communities.
MV: As a teacher, how do you maintain an effective teaching approach?
ZA: I am a self development junkie. I am constantly learning new teaching approaches and the use of new technologies to improve on my knowledge in education and other related areas. I recently finished a course in 21st century teaching methodology.
MV: Can you tell us the most challenging aspects of your job?
ZA: Grappling with a ton of responsibilities to attend to tops the most challenging aspect of my job. Even though it’s a great job which is truly rewarding, I am faced with the constant stress on my mental and physical health.
MV: In your opinion, what are the most important qualities you think a teacher should have?
ZA: Empathy, Collaboration, Problems solving skills, digital literacy and creativity.
MV: If you had the power to change one policy that is impacting education right now, what would that be?
ZA: I believe that poor motivation for teachers has continued to affect the education sector,if teachers are encouraged and supported we will have a better learning environment.
